MR Patrick Jeantet, the newly-appointed CEO of French infrastructure manager SNCF Network, visited British Steel's Hayange rail mill in northeast France on June 14 to sign a contract for the supply of 120,000 tonnes of rail.

SWEDISH infrastructure manager Trafikverket has installed recycled plastic sleepers supplied by Lankhorst Engineered Services, Netherlands, as part of a trial to evaluate the durability of alternatives to traditional timber sleepers.

THE Pakistan government has approved a $US 8.2bn project to upgrade the 1872km Karachi - Peshawar main line by 2021, 85% of which will be funded by a concessionary loan from China the terms of which will now be negotiated.

A full-size mock-up of a Metropolis train for lines 4, 5 and 6 of the Riyadh metro was presented in the Saudi capital by Alstom on June 8 to the governor of Riyadh, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the transport minister HE Suleiman Al Hamdan.

BRITISH Steel, which was formed following the purchase of Tata Steel's Long Products Europe division by Greybull Capital in May, has launched a new premium-coated rail called Zinoco.

MERMEC, Italy, announced at the WCRR congress in Milan that it has been awarded a €100m 10-year contract by the Finnish Transport Agency (Liikennevirasto) for the inspection and monitoring of Finland's 5960km 1524mm-gauge railway network.

MR Oleg Valinskiy, vice-president of Russian Railway (RZD), says that RZD will complete the modernisation of the 1067mm-gauge railway on Sakhalin island and its conversion to 1520mm gauge in 2018.

THE opening of an extension of the Wolverhampton - Birmingham Midland Metro light rail line to Birmingham New Street station finally took place on May 30 following track remedial works which had forced the postponement of the original opening scheduled for May 22.

THE Swiss Federal Council has submitted plans to parliament for SFr 13.2bn ($US 13.3bn) in funding to cover the cost of maintaining the Swiss rail network for the period 2017-2020.

ARGENTINA's Ministry of Transport is to invest Pesos 1.64bn ($US 115.5m) during the next four years to upgrade the 54km metre-gauge Belgrano North commuter rail line linking Buenos Aires Retiro with Vila Rosa.